As soon as we drove into Noosa, we all fell in love with it! There was such a lovely chilled out vibe and with a lot of people making their way to the beach and walking around the town, it was certainly a happening vibrant town too! As we only had today to have a look around and get to our campsite, we parked up and went exploring. Gareth wanted to look in the national park so we did the shortest coastal walk which takes about 45 minutes each way. It was a very scenic walk with lots of trees and cliffs and beautiful views over the sea. There were several different bays along the way all looking slightly different to each other but each still with amazing blue water. We stopped for a while to watch a couple of lads who were stood on the edge of some rocks as it looked like they were going to do some tomb stoning - this is when you jump of rocks or cliffs into rock pools I think! It's an extremely dangerous sport and it looked it as they kept looking into the water but the waves were crashing pretty hard so it looked like total stupidity if they were going to jump. After a little while of waiting we gave up as it felt like we'd given them a bit of stage fright and they weren't actually going to do it now. So as we don't know the outcome hopefully they didn't actually jump!

Once we got to the end of the walk we got a lovely view down the coast line which was round the corner, also right below us we could see turtles swimming about in the water . This cliff edge is a brilliant view point for whale spotting but unfortunately we were a few months out of season.
 
After walking back to the car we headed down to Sunshine beach. Any beach that's called the Sunshine beach is a winner for me as hopefully it's called that for a reason! It is, in fact, the start of a very long stretch of beautiful beaches which run all the way down from Noosa to Coolum, this is why it's called the Sunshine Coast. We popped into a shop to get supplies for lunch then went and sat on the beach to eat while we watched some proper surfers.
 
We continued our drive down the coast seeing all the big houses and shops along the seafront and arrived in Maroochydore in the late afternoon where we found our campsite and got set up before going for a little walk around the area to get our bearings and see what was about.
 
The next day, we decided to go on some of the scenic drives nearby so we drove inland and enjoyed the views from each of the lookouts. From most of them, we could see for miles all the way back to where the big hotels were along the coast . This took most of the day as we covered a lot of the area nearby. We also completed a couple of walking trails which took us down to some beautiful rock pools and were very excited to spot a koala high up in a tree and a lizard crossing a path as we were walking back to the van. By the time we got back to the camp we were all pretty hungry and had nothing to cook so we decided to head into the town, see what was about and hopefully get some food. It didn't take us long to find their version of Riverside in Norwich where there were bars, restaurants and a cinema. After checking out the menus at each place, we settled on the Cow and Anchor restaurant. The food was really tasty and we all enjoyed being waited on for a change!
 
On our second day in Maroochydore, we decided to make the most of the fact our campsite backed onto a gorgeous beach. Matt was up early and went for a beach run and then we quickly got our swimmers and sun tan lotion on and headed for some sun. Gareth decided he wanted to investigate the shops in search of a Go Pro camera so he left us tanning! Feeling inspired by the surfers we had watched the day before, Matt went off to hire a bodyboard before hitting the waves for a couple of hours . Gareth came back a while later and we went for lunch in a lovely little cafe just off the seafront before heading back to the camp! It was a little cloudy so we didn't realise quite how hot it was until we got back to the camp and showered ready to go out for the evening. While we were at the camp, a man walked past and said to Matt, "looks like someone has been out in the sun today! That's the Queensland sun for ya!" At the time, we didn't really think we looked like we had caught the sun that much but as the evening went on, Matt and I got redder and redder so I was pretty glad we had decided to go to the cinema and see the new Bond film, Skyfall, as it meant I could sit in an air conditioned room for a while and cool off!!! Another clue should have been when we went to Coles to get some sweets for the cinema when we had people basically laughing at our red faces. We all enjoyed the film though we did think there were a few too many cheesy cliches in it!
 
Our plans for our final day on the Sunshine Coast saw our group disband as Gareth had booked to go diving on the shipwreck of the HMAS Brisbane, while Matt and I had tickets to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo! We set off nice and early as the zoo opened at 10 so we aimed to be there for then . It was good we did as when we got there there was only a few people already there so we didn't have to queue at all and had areas of the zoo to ourselves for a little while. As soon as you enter the zoo, you instantly see how there is so much that is in tribute to Steve, with big pictures, bronze statues and concrete flooring with his hand and feet prints in. It makes it all quite sad as you're reminded of his unfortunate death. 
 
The first animals we saw was some huge tortoises. I still find it incredible how big they grow, how slowly they walk around and how long they live!
 
The zoo has a brilliant collection of animals but crocodiles were Steve's favourite so its no wonder so much emphasis is put on that particular animal. Quite quickly we found a massive crocodile model showing how big Steve and scientists believe they can grow to as they live for around 150-200 years and of course Matt was keen to have a picture with it to show just how big it is.
 
Next up was the wombats and the snakes. Wombats are quite a common animal over here but we haven't seen any yet except a couple in wildlife parks . They are quite cute looking and the ones here just wandered about slowly eating the grass! There was a big area for all the snakes as they had all the different ones from around the country: some very poisonous ones and some not so. The first one we looked at decided to climb up the glass to check us out so we got to go face to face with one of the deadliest there! Matt was much more excited about this than I was as I kept imaging the scene in Harry Potter where the glass disappears and was not keen to be that close to a deadly snake if that happened! In a big cabinet in the middle of the snake room there was a skeleton of a snake that had lived in the zoo for its whole life and had reached almost 20 feet in length!
 
I'm not a lover of birds so walking through an aviary isn't my idea of fun but in all fairness this was quite a nice one with lots of different parrots, parakeets, lorikeets and several others we don't know the names of! They all seemed very relaxed and friendly as they ate off the bird tables and baskets whilst letting everyone get up close to watch . 
 
We had lots of fun feeding the kangaroos in their paddock although it felt quite strange being up so close to them so soon after hitting one! They were really calm and relaxed as they all just laid about sleeping or just being lazy so you could stroke and pet them for ages without any bother. There was one little boy who decided to test their patience though and came running at one of the kangaroos with a big stick in his hand! Luckily his dad looked round in the neck of time and stopped him just before he reached out and was going to give the roo a good poke or it could have turned nasty pretty quickly! Just past the kangaroo enclosure were the koalas, there were lots of them all in different trees and some in a 'close up' area so you could pat them and take photos. There were even a few little baby ones which we hadn't seen before. So cute!!!
 
We walked down to the 'Out of Africa' area which is the newest part of the zoo and something Steve Irwin was very keen to develop but to be honest we were rather underwhelmed as we thought this was going to be a big safari area which you went on in jeeps like in Singapore but we quickly noticed it was just a large area you could stand at the side and look into . So we decided the one at Colchester Zoo was much better! From here we had to make a quick dash back up to the central area of the zoo as the main event: the crocodile show, was about to begin!!
 
There was a big turn out and the auditorium was pretty full! Just as we were praising ourselves for getting there early ish and nabbing good seats, the heavens opened and it started to rain! So we had to scramble over the seats behind and under the canopy, which were still pretty decent seats as they were central just not as close! The warm up acts included a range of birds which flew around the the auditorium on queue and did cool tricks like taking a $20 note out of a man's hand and then returning it to him! Next up they brought some big snakes out into the water and demonstrated how quickly they can move even in the water! Then came the show we had all been waiting for... the crocs!!!
 
It started off with some very dramatic music and people running about pretending to be scared as a huge croc was loose but as a black figure appeared in the water it turned out only to be a little baby croc so it was pretty small but quite funny after all the commotion! Next was the real thing as the two croc keepers ushered out a fully grown adult croc and the dark shadow in the water was massive this time! As they lured him over by splashing in the water it was quite tense as he then went into attack mode . With just it's little eyes out the water suddenly he crawled out after the keepers as they fed it meat showing how quick and power full its jaws are. They did this a few times around the pool with the keeper having to jump out of the enclosure at one point to get out of the way as it leapt after him. They then hung meat off a platform and got it to jump up out of the water to show how dangerous they are if you're hanging your feet off a boat or something. It was quite scary how such a beast can move so quickly and jump so high. It's no wonder Steve was so fascinated by them. They also demonstrated the difference in their abilities in the water compared to on land with them moving at lightning speeds in the water but stumbling and crawling when on land. Either way I hope I never have to get close enough to one to test that theory myself! After the show we went behind the arena to where the crocodiles are kept and while they all looked calm and relaxed we now knew how their temperament can change in a split second so we weren't fooled!
 
Outside the crocodile enclosures was a huge area dedicated to the tributes sent to the Irwin family after Steve's death . They range from individuals to companies, members of the public to celebrities, adults to children, Australians to people from all over the world. We took some time to have a look around them and it really was a sombre moment!
 
The last area of the zoo we had a look round was the cassowaries and the Tasmanian devils. These are strange creatures and I'm glad we don't have them at home as they are pretty ugly, look almost prehistoric, and can be incredibly vicious!
 
As we left the zoo, we spotted a huge billboard with a picture of Steve doing one of his crazy leaps in the air. Naturally, I thought that looked great fun and challenged Matt to get a photo of each of us doing the same jump! It took a little while to get the perfect shot but after several attempts we got there! That's our exercise for the month done! Ha!
 
We drove back to the campsite to collect Gareth and hear all about his dive, before starting our drive towards Brisbane as this was going to take about 3 or 4 hours. We took the scenic route as well so we could see the Glass Mountains which were an impressive sight! We had seen the Glass Mountains at a distance when we went driving around from Maroochydore a few days earlier but it was great to see them closer up . The Glass Mountains are a collection of old volcanoes, some are still quite big but one has worn completely away except the volcanic core where the lava funnelled out from under the ground to the top. There were some excellent view points with us spotting an absolutely amazing house looking out over them. This was only a quick drive by visit though as we had to be in Brisbane before the campsite shut!
 
We absolutely loved the Sunshine Coast and would go so far as to say it is our favourite place we've visited yet! We would love to have spent longer here so may have to come back for another visit in a few months time! It's gonna be a tough act to follow!